


We're Here for You

by Tired_College_Student_Writing



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Family Feels, Family Issues, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-26
Updated: 2019-03-10
Packaged: 2019-11-06 04:23:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17932763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tired_College_Student_Writing/pseuds/Tired_College_Student_Writing
Summary: It wasn’t often that the Hargreeves were able to or willing to act like siblings, but that didn’t mean it didn’t happen.





	1. Chapter 1

By the time they had turned six, they know not to ask when one of them went missing.

‘Individual Training,’ their father would answer each time, no matter how long their sibling was gone. He never elaborated, never gave an explanation for why they were gone past that, but they knew by now that it wasn’t pleasant.

Instead of asking they did what they didn’t often have an opportunity to do.

They acted like siblings.

Every time One arrived back drenched in sweat, wincing at the lightest of movements, they learned not to touch him, not wanting to see the tears spring into his eyes.

Every time Two would arrive back, stuttering harder if he even spoke at all, struggling to draw breath against some unseen force, they would keep him away from any amount of liquid larger than a cup of water after he arrived back, ignoring the smell until he gained the courage to bathe again.

Every time Three would arrive back, overly focused on everything that moved, trying her hardest to not speak out of fear of triggering her power even without saying the words, they would not ask her questions after she got back that she couldn’t answer with a shake of her head or a thumb up or down instead let the silence overtake them.

Every time Four would arrive back, smile forced as he shivered against unseen forces even as he tried to crack jokes like he always did, they would not mention or use powers around him, not letting their faces show how much their hearts shattered as the most carefree of them whimpered.

Every time Five would arrive back, still as a statue, unwilling to move from where he managed to sit down, they would bring him food and walk him to the bathroom, always touching him when he moved, letting him know he wasn’t going to disappear through time and space.

Every time Six would arrive back, clinging to whoever was closest after taking up all the hot water available in the house, emerging from shower in a pool of steam with skin almost blistering from the heat, they would let him hold them, not flinching as they felt the squirming under his skin press against them, knowing it was more disturbing to him then it was to them.

When Seven would arrive back, despite having no powers to her name, more obsessed in her music the ever before, bow never leaving her hand even as the violin would screech more than ever before, they would create more noise the usual, to cover the screeches from Father’s listening ear, understanding the looks she would shoot their way when she needed a silent audience and sitting down as close as they dared in case Father came looking for them.

Father would never approve of such weakness, so their rituals became unspoken rules, hidden away from the prying eyes of their caretakers.

 

After all, they were siblings, no matter what happened.


	2. October 3, 1994- Age 5

Her throat burned, that’s all she could think of as father lead her back into the house, trying to keep an eye on the figures that passed her. How many had he forced her to control this time? How many tried desperately to grab her, to silence her before her words could reach their ears? How many did she end up hurting trying to save herself?

She wiped the tears pooling in her eyes away before father could notice them, the last thing Three needed now was for Father to give her the lecture on useless emotions, plus She was a big girl, she would not cry… she did want to hide away from the world, however, away from the words that still rang in her ears, the nightmares that her rumors could bring.

Instead, she found her feet carrying her back to her room, where she curled up on her bed, eyes trained on the door, back pressed against the wall.

She was safe here, Three knew this but… Her eyes still skittered between the shadows in the hallways and the shapes moving outside her window.

Suddenly there was a figure standing in her doorway, making her flinch. Four held up his hands, giving her full view of the colorful doodles on his palms that she knew Father would be upset by as she gave her a gapped grin. He still hadn’t gotten his bottom two teeth back since they had fallen out three months ago…

“Mind if I come in, Three?” He asked, voice softer then she remembered it ever being. She gave a nod, and pat the bed next to her. He took the invitation and flopped unceremoniously onto the mattress, bouncing her slightly.  

She braced herself, ready for him to start talking even when she wanted, no needed to listen to the creaks of the house, to know if someone was coming, but it never came. Instead, he just held up a hand, fingers sprawled in silent question.

She linked fingers with him, relaxing by the tiniest of degrees as he squeezed her hand gently, still silent.

Three wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but Four stayed silent and still if she hadn’t glanced over at him and been greeted by a variety of goofy expressions she would have figured he had fallen asleep. Four was never still, never silent… and yet here when all she wanted was silence, he refused to move away.

They could hear the bell ringing announcing dinner.

“Wanna come to dinner or stay here?” He finally broke the long silence, “Thumbs up for dinner, thumbs down for me making up an excuse to get Father to leave you alone.”

She sat silently for a long moment, simply letting Four run his thumb over her knuckles.

“I’m okay now,” She whispered, wincing at the pain searing her vocal cords, but his gap-tooth grin made it impossible for her not for her lips not to spread into a shaky grin

“Okie Dokie!” He said, hopping up and dragging her out of the room by their still linked hands, “Better hurry or Father will still be mad!”

Three laughed, memories of her training falling away, as they ran towards the dining room racing even as their hands never came apart.

 

 


	3. January 30, 1998- age 8

Her hands trembling too much for the soothing sound of the violin to fill her room like normal. It had been months since Seven had gotten the instrument to stop screeching, but now she could barely get five seconds of music between the different screams coming from her instrument, but she couldn’t stop, even as the music was blurry behind the tears she refused to let fall.

Father had had her training again, attempting to awaken some hidden power maybe, or simply making sure she could fight should someone with ill will got into the Academy when the team was out, she wasn’t sure. No matter the reason, it didn’t stop her mind from hearing the words spat at her as he made her run through the grueling obstacle course again and again, even as cuts and bruises started littering her skin as he threw everything he could think at her tiny frame.

Now though she needed to practice her violin as she had been instructed to, she needed to make it sing sweetly so that Father would not grow madder at her. She froze as she heard footsteps coming down the hall right as the instrument in her hands let out the shrillest scream yet.

The hall grew quiet, then she could hear someone whispering from near Two’s room.

“Right,” She heard two voices agree, but before she could resume playing she heard a crash.

“F-Four! You-You m-mor-mor, You idiot! You-You’ll p-p-pay for th-tha-that” Two yelled out, followed by the thump of one of his knives embedding itself into a wall. She paused, he didn’t sound overly upset like he normally did when Four did something stupid and was he exaggerating his stutter? She moved the bow again, trying to ignore them as their argument continued.

“You have catch me first, momma’s boy!”

“Mom! Fo-four bro-ke my-my-my stuff!”

There were steps thundering back towards the center of the house. Seven could faintly hear more knives flying and louder crashes, she thinks she hears Six screams. She almost has to smile at her brother's antics, but she can’t, not now when the words keep playing over and over in her head, when she can see the swinging blades coming towards her when she closes her eyes, how she could feel eyes on her… eyes on her?

Seven turned to see One at her open doorway, brows scrunched in concern. She turned away, bow poised over the strings again.

He didn’t leave even as the instrument screamed in protest again.

The crashes from inside the house grew fainter as she relaxed, comforted by the presence of One. By the time she finished the song with no errors, One was leaning against the door frame with a smile wide on his lips.

“That sounded really good Seven.”

She smiled, only to wince as she heard the telltale sound of Father shouting. One groaned.

“I told them to distract Father, not make him mad,” He sighed to open air, before turning to walk toward the chaos. She smiled softly, touched by his thoughtfulness, no matter how over the top it was.

He turned back to look at her, “Aren’t you coming, Seven?”

She blinked surprised to be included before face breaking into a large smile.

“Of course,” Seven said, memories of her training fading to the background as she and One walked side by side towards the chaos. 


	4. December 24, 1998- age 9

His skin itched to the point where there had to be little bugs crawling under his skin, but his thoughts were moving too sluggish for him to do anything past following Father back to the main levels of the house. He was dismissed, he had to have been because one moment Father was talking to him, but the next he was alone in the entryway.

Shakily he slid his feet across the floor until he reached the stairs, all but collapsing onto the first one, curling in on himself against the banister. He could feel his atoms straining to jump, the math to leap through the fabric of reality back to his room flashing before his eyes over and over again, but his body burned against the  electromagnetic force binding it together. 

He didn’t want to jump, not again, it hurt, everything hurt. 

Five had lost count of how many times his father had made him jump, avoiding any number of projectiles, after the first three thousand times, now he couldn’t stop shaking, nerves begging to keep jumping until there was nothing left of him. Had it not so close to Christmas he imagined Father would still have him jumping. Luckily for him, Pogo and Mother had convinced Father to give all the children two days off, their birthday and Christmas, to give them the ‘All American’ feel.

Five was scared. Scared of not being able to stop if he moved from where he was now. Scared that he would be nothing but atoms scattered over time and space. 

A clink next to him made him jump, luckily a hand wrapped around his wrist stopping him from going anywhere. He let out his a shaky breath as he turned to meet the worried eyes of Three, no not Three, he reminded himself, Allison. Mother had given them names as an early Christmas gift, or rather if you looked at the clues, Father had told Mother to give them names to make interviews easier when he debuted the Umbrella Academy next year. Five refused to play Father’s games however, He was Five and nothing was going to change that. 

“You should eat,” She said softly, the hand not leaving his wrist, “I brought your favorite.” 

He looked back to the step behind them, the noise that had scared him was a plate, a sandwich cut into triangles, peanut butter and marshmallows poking out of the sides. He bit back a grin. 

It was stupid, he knows, but the odd sandwich was practically a calm down ritual for him now. Four and Six, er… Klaus and Ben had tried to make him food while Mother was out shopping ending up with the actual atrocity of a meal, but… he liked it, liked how his brothers had tried so hard for him even when they were all five, too young to really understand what the others were going through with their powers. 

He didn’t say anything to her, just grabbing the sandwich with his free hand as she ran her fingers over the inside of his wrist.  After he finished, she held out a tall glass of water. He gulped it down. 

“How long have I been here?”  He couldn’t help but ask. His internal clock was usually impeccable, but he was still too shaken to get a reading. 

She sent him a soft smile, but it drooped a little, “Not long.”

“A couple of hours then?” He recalculated based on her wince, “Is it still the 24th?”    
  


“Only for a couple more minutes,” She admitted, “One and Two were  keeping Father away, me and Six have been checking on you but you were too far away for us to do anything.” 

“Six and I,” He corrected on instinct, “And you should really get used to calling our brothers and sister by their names now.” 

“Like you have any room to talk, Five.”

He smirked, “I don’t want to make it too easy for Father to convince everyone we have the perfect family.” 

“Then why shouldn’t we do the same?” 

“Because it makes all of you happy,” He said, not looking at her, “To have names, to be able to pretend you’re normal.” 

“And you don’t?” 

“I’m already happy,” He told her, turning his wrist to grasp her hand back, “I have all of you. You, Luther, Diego, Klaus, Ben, Vanya, Mother, Pogo… there’s no reason to pretend.”

“And here you’ve just about convinced everyone that you were heartless,” Allison laughed, making Five’s smile twitch wider. 

“Not my fault all your brains’ are  pediculous.” 

“You have to be making up these words,” 

“I am not!” 

“We’re nine, Five,” she groaned with an eye roll, “You swallowed a dictionary,”

They looked into each other's eyes before breaking down in giggles, Five leaning on his taller sisters shoulder.

It took a few minutes for them to calm down.

“You need to use the bathroom?” She asked, earning a shake of his head, “Able to walk?” 

“I…” He stopped himself, “I’m not ready to be ungrounded.” 

She smiled, pulling him up to his feet by their still linked hands, “Alright.” 

They slowly made their way up the stairs and down towards their bedrooms. 

He licked his lips, “Can we go back to your room?” 

She cocked her head, but gave a small “Okay,” not pushing. 

He still felt like he had to explain, “Too much math in mine, I don’t… I can’t,” 

She squeezed his hand giving a firmer, “Okay.” 

It wasn’t long before he found himself in borrowed PJs, luckily father hadn’t made those gender-specific, he preferred his pants no matter what Fo-Klaus said, and curled up under the blankets, his head pillowed on Allison’s chest, her arms wrapped around them.  

“Merry Christmas, Allison,” He whispered as they drifted off to sleep at 1:42 am, December 25th. 

“Merry Christmas, Five.” 


End file.
